So, why did the disposable diaper companies choose this avenue to battle it out? Personally, I think they are trying to tap into the growing number of cloth diaper users. The “Cute” factor is by far the part of cloth diapering that is the most fun. Who doesn’t love looking at a well rounded cloth diaper stash full of vibrant colors and adorable prints?

However, I think the disposable diaper companies miss the point. How our cloth diapers look is just the drop in the bucket. Most cloth diaper users are more concerned with what is actually touching our babies skin, chemical free soft fabric vs. paper and chemicals. The fact that cloth diapers are cute, just adds a little bit of whimsy an otherwise mundane chore. In essence, having a colorful disposable diaper is like enjoying your favorite tea in a pretty paper cup rather than a gorgeous heirloom teacup. Now, which would you prefer?

Cloth Diaper Trial Packages are a great way to get you feet wet.

If this is you and I know YOU are out there… have you ever considered a Cloth Diaper Trial Package? Many cloth diapering boutique have such a creature.

Cloth Diaper Trial Packages are great idea! You get a package of a variety of cloth diapers, a sampling of all the different kinds of cloth diapers, and cloth diapering accessories.  Then for a small fee, you can wash and use they cloth diapers and accessories for a specified time. If you love them all great… keep them, if not send them back. You aren’t out much money and if nothing else you can tell all of your friends that you “tried” cloth diapering

Cloth Diaper Trial Packages are the best of all worlds… especially if you are on the fence. You have probably read that 27 billion disposable diapers go into our landfills every year and that those same disposable diapers that we throw away today will be there in the year 2500. You have probably also read that disposable diapers have chemicals and toxins in them that are not very safe on your baby’s delicate skin. You have most likely also read that even though it seems like a lot of money initially, disposable diapers still cost a lot more than cloth diapers.

Even after all of these facts, you may still be wondering… I don’t know if I would like using cloth diapers. What if I just do not like them? What if I spend a lot of money on cloth diapers and it just isn’t my cup of tea? All these are valid. Even though cloth diapering is very easy, I too was apprehensive before I began using them. Like all new things sometimes it is difficult to just go for it, especially when the “it” costs quite a bit of your hard earned dollars. This is why Cloth Diaper Trial Packages were created…. just for you. They are inexpensive and allow you to get you feet wet with cloth diapers, so you can decide for yourself if cloth diapering is for you.

If you are on the fence, try a cloth diaper trial package. There are many out there in cloth diapering cyberspace…look around.

If you do decide to try one, I bet you will see that cloth diapers truley are as easy to care for as everyone says they are….

….and you may just fall in love with all the squishy goodness.

I know I have!!!

Why is it that cloth diapers automatically become worse for the environment than disposable diapers just because you wash them. Does that mean because we use cloth towels, cloth sheets, and cloth clothing that need washed on a regular basis that we should all switch to paper counterparts. Maybe we should stop washing dishes also and use paper plates and plastic forks. This just seems ludicrous to me.

What these disposable diaper companies fail to mention is the amount of water and other raw materials that manufacturing, packaging, and shipping disposable diapers actually take. In fact, to process the wood pulp from trees into paper, guess what the process takes? That’s right…water. I am not talking about just a little bit of water either, but massive amounts. Do you ever hear anyone mention that? What about the number of trees that are needed to produce the approximately 1.3 million tons of wood pulp needed each year for the manufacture of these disposable diapers, do you ever hear any mention of this? In fact it is estimated to take at least a quarter of a million trees to produce enough disposable diapers to diaper the babies in the US for just ONE year.  I don’t know about you, but I think that that is a LOT of trees.

What about the oil that is needed to produce disposable diapers… Do you ever hear about this? It takes 1 cup of crude oil to produce the plastic needed to make one disposable diaper. With over 18 billion disposable diapers used each year in the US, this is a massive amount of oil. Unfortunately, it doesn’t even include the oil needed to package and ship said disposable diapers.

The sad fact is that producing these disposable diapers is quite a misuse of our natural resources, but you don’t hear about that do you? It is a shame that the madness doesn’t stop there. Unfortunately, though, these same disposable diapers are used once and then thrown into our already overburdened landfills where it can take 250-500+ years to decompose.

It seems to me that there is still no question…

Cloth Diapers are BETTER for the environment and MORE GREEN!!!

However, before I started cloth diapering, I was a bit nervous. There were so many  diaper choices and I worried that it would be difficult, but I decided to try them anyway. Guess what? I never looked back. After about a week or so, I had a routine down and I found cloth diapering to be just as easy to use as disposables. I was already doing laundry everyday anyway, so another load or two a week was nothing to write home about.

Anyway to make a long story short, I love that my baby has cotton and soft fabrics against her sensitive skin. I know that with cloth diapers she is not being needlessly exposed to potentially harmful chemicals. Also, I can not imagine wearing paper underwear day in and day out, so it makes me happy that my baby wears cotton diapers rather than paper ones.

Besides, I love how cute my baby looks in cloth diapers. There are so many colors and patterns available that I never tire of seeing the same old white diaper. The chore of diapering has become fun. I love being able to choose which cloth diaper or diapering combo that I am going to use on my baby’s dupa at any given time. Also, I rarely, if ever, have “blow-outs” with my cloth diapers. They are so great at containing even the messiest of messy messes, which I can, definitely, not say about disposable diapers.

I love that I am no longer contributing to the massive amounts of disposable diapers that are ending up in our landfills every day along with all the encapsulated human waste just waiting to wreck havoc on our groundwater supply.

Finally, as I mentioned earlier, I love that I never needed to make a “midnight run” to the store to buy diapers. I am saving money, helping the environment, protecting the health of my baby, and loving every minute of it.

So, why do you cloth diaper??? I would love to hear your stories